Ratings Key

★★★★ = Excellent. The best the genre has to offer.★★★1/2 = Very Good. Perhaps not "perfect," but undoubtedly a must-see.★★★ = Good. Accomplishes what it sets out to do and does it well.★★1/2 = Fair. Clearly flawed and nothing spectacular, but competently made. OK entertainment.★★ = Mediocre. Either highly uneven or by-the-numbers and uninspired.★1/2 = Bad. Very little to recommend.★ = Very Bad. An absolute chore to sit through.NO STARS! = Abysmal. Unwatchable dreck that isn't even bad-movie amusing.SBIG = So Bad It's Good. Technically awful movies with massive entertainment value.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988)

Joe Dante's The Howling (1981) was one of the great cult horror hits of the early 80s and a lot of that had to do with the director's ability to work a good sense of humor into the proceedings without sacrificing the scares in the process. However, it also took major liberties with the source novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, which displeased some fans. This third sequel attempts to right that wrong by presenting a more faithful version of the first book in Brandner's series. The basic plots of Howling I and Howling IV are nearly identical, but the approach to the material is not. Gone from this one are the slick production values, the sense of humor, the scares, the trend-setting special effects and the great cast. This much-lower-budgeted film simply comes off as by-the-numbers, humorless, dull and surprisingly amateurish considering the fact the director is very experienced in the horror genre and has such competent genre films as Twins of Evil (1971) and The Legend of Hell House (1973) already on his resume. While there was potential in the concept of approaching the book in a completely serious fashion, this wasn't the way to go about it.

Bestselling author Marie Adams (the very cute Romy Windsor) is haunted by visions of a nun and wolf faces and ends up spending time in an asylum as a result. After she's released, her husband Richard (Michael T. Weiss) takes her to a remote cabin located deep in the woods so she can have some quiet, peaceful time to recuperate. It isn't long before our troubled heroine begins doubting her sanity once again. Every night she hears wolves howling in the woods, despite the fact the sheriff (Norman Anstey) keeps insisting there are no large animals in the area. She's haunted by more visions of the nun as well as the home's former occupants, her poodle Pierre disappears and is later found with its head cut off and a pair of hikers vanish without a trace. To make matters even more stressful and sinister, all of the people living in the small neighboring town of Drago behave strangely and secretively.

Loose ends start to finally come together once Marie meets Janice Hatch (Susanne Severeid). A former nun herself, Janice is there looking for answers as to why another nun from her convent, Sister Ruth (Megan Kruskal), went crazy and died after spending some time in the area. It's rather personal for Janice because Ruth was her lover and it also becomes personal for Marie seeing how her hubby has been spending a little too much time making special trips into town to visit an exotic, seductive shop owner named Eleanor (Lamya Derval). It should come as no surprise to anyone reading that the entire town is actually a haven for werewolves.

There are three major problems that sink this film early on. The first is atrocious monotone acting from nearly everyone in the cast. It seems like many have been dubbed over and the audio recording is terrible to start with, so that may play some part is the thoroughly inept performances seen from nearly everyone in this film. That's especially unfortunate because, physically, all of the actors seem to be well-cast in their respective parts and their facial expressions hint at more acting competence than what's usually coming out of their mouths. The second major issue is the location. This is supposed to be taking place in Northern California but it was filmed in dusty, dry South Africa, which looks absolutely nothing like Northern California. The final major problem with this one is the pacing. It plays out like a boring made-for-TV "thriller" with endlessly talky scenes that don't contribute a thing of interest to an already utterly predictable plot. Even worse, this film wastes so much time on nothing for the first hour that it must then quickly rush through a choppily-edited finale in just a few minutes.

The only positives in this one happen at the very end and those are some gory Steve Johnson special effects, including a human meltdown and a guy ripping his face apart. Still, this is far from Johnson's best work. Aside from a few brief flashes of an actual werewolf (which seem to have been taken from another film altogether), the beasts are shown only as hairy-faced people and then as dogs in their full "transformation" stage later on. Very lame. The only other point of interest is that the opening 80s cheese-rock song ("Something Evil, Something Dangerous") was sung by Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues. Hunky blonde Antony Hamilton, previously seen in the disco vampire comedy failure Nocturna (1979), and Clive Turner (also the script writer) co-star. Harry Alan Towers was the producer.

6 comments:

spookyx3
said...

not unendurable. (how's that for a breakout quote?) i very vaguely remember brandner's book, and the movie is possibly something like how i pictured those parts that made it in. much as i love joe dante, unless i'm forgetting something obvious, nothing he did later approached his 'corman years' for me, so, as silly as it sounds, H6: THE FREAKS -- going by an early '90s memory -- might be my favorite of the series. haven't seen 3 or 5 yet.

I wouldn't go so far to say this one's unendurable but it's definitely one of my least favs in the entire series. Can't attest for accuracy with the source novel either way cause I haven't read it, but Dante's film trumps this one in every way for me. Part 3 gets raked across the coals frequently but I enjoyed the hell out of it and Part 6 is decent enough. My third favorite of them all.

Series ranking:

1. Original2. The Marsupials3. The Freaks4. The Rebirth5. Your Sister Is a Werewolf6. The Original Nightmare7. New Moon Rising

Haven't seen Howling: Reborn yet and I'm not sure I DO want to see it.

yeah, REBORN (and most likely) NEW MOON i won't bother with, so all that remains is III. mora back at the helm put me off MARSUPIALS, but i'll see it. looks like he took a what-the-hell kitchen-sink approach, versus the disintegrating mess of part II. think the only other movie i've seen of his is the wrong-headed, tiresome "wacky" musical RETURN OF CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE.

I will be interested to see how you react to Part III. It seems to be a love it or hate it type of film and I'm one of the few who seems to really like / appreciate it. I noticed on Mora's IMDb page he's now filming a movie called "Philippe Mora's The Growling," which made me laugh. The only other film I've seen of his is The Beast Within, which I wasn't too crazy about. Surprised I haven't watch Pterodactyl Women based on the title alone!

i like that title. there's a kickstarter thing to fund the movie, and it's raised a total of $210 in nine months.

"I have written and/or directed over 40 films and I have a soft spot for the offbeat ones that took on a life on of their own: like HOWLING 2 and HOWLING 3. What people do not know, and what I reveal in detail for the first time in my new film THE GROWLING, is that werewolves actually exist. I do not know why, but I have been legally released by my undertaking in 1984 to three governments to never disclose that they are real. Its a truly shocking history, but with my new film I can now reveal that many historical figures and current politicians, world leaders, scientists, movie stars, comedians, religious leaders, executives and others, both savory and unsavory, are lycanthropes. In this film I will take you into the startling MONDO WEREWOLF. Because of the seriousness of the revelations the only way to make the film without censorship is to seek funding from you, the public.

Special note: Early scenes have so shocked a few of my friends that paramedics will be standing by now at all screenings.

Did you know:

Most Major Talent agencies are run by werewolves. Most studios are infiltrated by werewolves. Most political parties have internal werewolf packs. Werewolves in LA and New York are trained to be Vegans to throw off investigators. Hybrid lycanthropes cannot control their own cursing and obscene language, particularly in Los Angeles. If someone starts speaking obscenities, stand back immediately. When a werewolf tries to leave the pack they are harassed, their families tormented and worse. Why do you think Hitler's code and nick name was Wolf? Shakespeare was a werewolf. Did he not write: He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf... The original title for THE MARSUPIALS was WOMB WITH A VIEW. These are only some of the revelations I can now reveal in THE GROWLING."

Hidden Horror

I contributed an essay on George A. Romero's 'Season of the Witch' (1972) to this wonderful book celebrating overlooked or underrated horror films. Forward by William "Maniac" Lustig and endorsed by Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund. Click on the photo to be redirected to Amazon where you can learn more or purchase a copy.

THE ORLOKS - 2015

(Results from the IMDb user polls. More will be added weekly throughout the year.)